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Purple, Pink & Gold

kitchi Aug 19, 2010 08:55 AM

The 1st photo is one of the most gold-backed male Flamboyant’s that I have. He is from 08’. I like the Yellow ones the best as adults. This one is gold but a couple other females are more yellow at times. The 2nd photo is a female 08’ Flamboyant that was looking really pink and has a tail that makes me weak. The 3rd photo is a female 07’ Guyana BCC. She was looking pretty dark & dull but since I was cleaning her 6' X 3' Vision cage, I took the shot. She has purple sides with red side medallions from tail to head. She looks very small in her cage but I give her all that room for exercise.

Replies (19)

Jonathan_Brady Aug 19, 2010 09:52 AM

I'll be happy to take that '07 female off your hands if she's too dark and ugly for you!

jb
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What's written above is purely my opinion. In fact, MOST of what you read on the internet is someone's opinion. Don't take it too seriously

Jonathan Brady
DeviantConstrictors.com
Deviant Constrictors picturetrail

KevMadden Aug 19, 2010 10:02 AM

She will be coming to me if Mike ever get tired of looking at her.

JK....I hadn't asked Mike about that before now...but I am asking!

Take care,

Kevin

kitchi Aug 19, 2010 10:48 AM

FORGET ABOUT IT !!!

Jonathan_Brady Aug 19, 2010 11:00 AM

Nice one Mike

But... I may have something (as of yesterday) that could finagle one of those out of your hands...

jb
-----
What's written above is purely my opinion. In fact, MOST of what you read on the internet is someone's opinion. Don't take it too seriously

Jonathan Brady
DeviantConstrictors.com
Deviant Constrictors picturetrail

kitchi Aug 19, 2010 01:14 PM

I checked them out and they are beautiful Guyana's! Thats three litters from Rose. You could die today and your contribution to this hobby is already enough to last forever. Congrats. They remind a bit of this Cypress Creek/Marzec male I produced in 07'. I have plans for him next year. I like to wait until the 5th yr, even for males, but he is a freak of nature as he has outgrown even all of his sisters. I used a couple of his brothers this year because I thought he was a girl since he was so big but I think they were too young and am waiting for a slugfest. Also, Orange laddertail girl showing some digestion colors just for the heck of it.

Jonathan_Brady Aug 19, 2010 02:07 PM

You don't have to kill me off to get one of Rose's offspring Mike, just trade me lol

Thanks for the kudos man.

I'm just trying to catch up to you though!

jb
-----
What's written above is purely my opinion. In fact, MOST of what you read on the internet is someone's opinion. Don't take it too seriously

Jonathan Brady
DeviantConstrictors.com
Deviant Constrictors picturetrail

treystowell Aug 19, 2010 01:25 PM

no post
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Trey Stowell
BoaCraft Reptiles
Wichita, KS
www.boacraftreptiles.com
trey@boacraft.com

ceniceros Aug 19, 2010 02:32 PM

Lots of color on those Mike. Nice.
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Richard Ceniceros

afoll Aug 19, 2010 03:12 PM

Beautiful boas in that thread Mike. How's the Golden Girl?

Andy

kitchi Aug 19, 2010 04:57 PM

She is still gravid (bottom pic) but it looks like a slugout. The only reasons that there is still any hope is that:
1) One of her sisters showed less and had 9 big healthy babies.
2) She was in and out of the heat conservation pile.
3) She refused food weeks ago.
I am not sure I have shown this other male Guyana from her sister before but you can see I have gone from BCC with uniform saddles and huge peaks (regardless of color) to color (regardless of pattern). Yes, I have had individuals with it "all" before but very few considering how many I have had in my collection over the years.

Jonathan_Brady Aug 19, 2010 05:18 PM

"squishy"? That's always my "litmus test" for them. May be pretty crude and archaic, but it works so far! lol

Also, you mentioned feeding while gravid - I do this too, but I'm curious to know your thoughts on it. How frequent? Meal size vs standard size meal? How long?

Thanks man!

jb
-----
What's written above is purely my opinion. In fact, MOST of what you read on the internet is someone's opinion. Don't take it too seriously

Jonathan Brady
DeviantConstrictors.com
Deviant Constrictors picturetrail

kitchi Aug 19, 2010 08:00 PM

No, I would say she is not squishy. I do not keep records but I would say for at least half of my successful litters, the female stops getting fed close to a month before I intro the males so that she is purged out and doesn’t sh?t on them. That would kind of tun me off so I do that for my guys. She then does not get fed until she drops. So that is 6-7 months without eating. On the other hand I have had successful litters where I fed a few small meals spaced a few weeks apart starting after the POS and ending at least a month before dropping if I recall. Do not feed anything, at least anything big, while courting or prior to POS. I killed the original MegaPeaks female by giving her one more rabbit for the road after being with males for a while. It must have interfered with the ovulation process. The sad part about it was she did not even need it as she was plenty fat.

Jonathan_Brady Aug 19, 2010 08:52 PM

In my limited experience, squishy is good. The first female I ever tried to breed slugged out on me because I had NO CLUE what I was doing. She felt like a normal boa - hard and muscular, just a little bigger. She ate a lot of the slugs by the way, I caught her in the act.

All 4 other litters I've produced have had viable babies and each time the female felt "squishy" when held (I only hold them to transport them from cage to tub while cleaning). So, you may be right. I hope not though.

I think everyone has different practices regarding feeding and breeding. I'm a year-round kind of guy and I even feed when cooling, breeding and during gestation. In fact, I feed after the swelling from ovulation has gone down and before they even turn blue.

Thought I'd detail out my regimen. Not because I think mine is better than yours, you've CLEARLY had more success than me. In fact, some of what you do is EXACTLY in line with my practices. But this is for the benefit of those who may be interested in reading about another way to do it. I don't think either is wrong, or either is right. It's just the way we do it

My feeding regimen is formulated around avoiding excess fat at all costs. Wild boas are never fat, so neither are my captive boas. So, there's never a "pump 'em up" season.

I feed fairly consistently all year long after I raise my temps back up to normal (ALL animals get cycled, even babies). So, once my thermostat reaches 88 degrees (goes higher - to 93 which gives a hotspot of 91), I feed a meal equal to the girth of the animal about every 14-21 days. Occasionally it's 10-14 days if I get around to it earlier. 13-17 is the norm.

Around September, I throw in about 3-4 extra meals spread over the course of 3 months (Sept 1 - Nov 30). So when they would normally get 6-7 meals in 90 days, they instead get about 10. But the meals are one step down in size (large rat eaters now get mediums) so I'm still not even "pumping 'em up". Then when I start cooling (sometime in December), I start backing off on the frequency of the meals to about 14-20 days again - but I keep the meals one step down to accommodate the cooler temps and thus, slower digestion. When I get down to daytime highs around 83-84 degrees, I step down the size of the meal again. I stop feeding below 80 degree daytime highs (which only lasts a couple of weeks). Since they're ectothermic, a lower temp means a lower metabolism and lower need for food. They always get just what they need to stay muscular, and not fat.

During courtship, I ONLY feed when the male seems to be taking a break. I'll separate them and toss a small meal to both, let them digest for 3-4 days and put them back together. By small, I mean that an "XL" eater gets a small.

After ovulation, males return to a normal feeding schedule and temperatures and the females go on a "small meal every 10 days" diet. I follow that diet for females until they're about 50 days from parturition. Then they don't eat again until they deliver. After parturition, I will feed females heavier than ever for about 3-4 meals. I give them a one-step down meal about every 8-10 days 3-4 times and then they join the rest of the group. They stay "thinner" for a while and would CERTAINLY gorge themselves if I let them, but I think fast weight gain is just fat and like I said, I avoid fat boas at all costs.

I sincerely hope your girl surprises you. It'd be great to see another Guyana litter hit the ground!

jb
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What's written above is purely my opinion. In fact, MOST of what you read on the internet is someone's opinion. Don't take it too seriously

Jonathan Brady
DeviantConstrictors.com
Deviant Constrictors picturetrail

kitchi Aug 19, 2010 10:09 PM

Thanks JB. One thing that I am still uncomfortable with is cooling. I have not figured it out yet whether or not to cool, what temp. and how long, whether you just need to cool the male or both etc. I have had successes and many failures trying about every combo and because of that, I really do not know the best way to go other than to err on the conservative side which is to not cool much (other than maybe 5 degrees of natural cooling in the winter by not compensating with the heaters) so as to not allow the boas to get respiratory infection and die a slow death.
The other thing I am not completely comfortable is gestation heat. It seems like most use belly heat (heat mats/strips) under the cage. All of my successful litters except for one came with just room heat and keeping them about 87-88F. In a couple of cases, I pulled the oil filled electric heaters on the floor near the corner of the cage to provide a little thermo regulation. The only good litter I had with a heat mat was when is was only covered a small portion of the snake and it was no hotter than high around 90 if I recall. When I used lager ones that had spots up to low to mid 90’s in the center, the boas did not regulate right and generally preemied out. I think they have a built in calculator that calculates (temp X time) i.e. (degrees X days) and when that number is hit, out the babies come. And when they enjoy sitting on the heat too much, that number is met too soon and the babies are premature because they just can develop fast enough.

Jonathan_Brady Aug 19, 2010 10:24 PM

I consider Gus to be the boa king! So, I designed much of my plan around what's written on his site. I cool 20% from the daytime highs - as per his site. Because I make such a drastic change, I keep temps in the summer warmer than most (91-92 hot spot). A 20% drop is 18 degrees down to 74 daytime high - which I hold for about 7-10 days before I start warming up again. BTW, I cool and warm in 2-3 degree increments per week. I actually cool my females a degree or two further down than I do my males. I do this because their body mass is 3 times greater and it takes longer to drop their core body temp. I do this by staggering the temperatures at which I cool them. For instance, if females are 85 this week and 82 next week, males are 88 this week and 85 next week. So they're a week behind.

I have only ever used undercage heating. I heat half the cage and leave the other half subject to ambient cage temps as well as the ambient room temps. My cool side is usually around 79-81 during the summer in the day. It drops to about 75 at night (warm side is about 82 at night). In the past, I just completely cut the heat off at night, all year round. No problems. I think the boas compensated by spending more time on or near the heat during the day and coiled up at night to conserve the body heat.

This year, I warmed up my breeders a few degrees warmer than in the past. In the past, I kept them at 85 until ovulation. Because of that, I heard a little bit of whistling from the males, but not mucous and it didn't seem serious - went away upon warm up. This year, I took them up to 86.5-87 and didn't have that problem.

I also warmed the females up sooner than in the past, and to a slightly higher temp. Rose's litter, the first of the three, had some belly bulges and thick umbilical cords. So, I made a note to myself to do it the old way next time. I think you're on to something with the too hot too fast = premies.

Thanks for sharing your observations Mike!

jb
-----
What's written above is purely my opinion. In fact, MOST of what you read on the internet is someone's opinion. Don't take it too seriously

Jonathan Brady
DeviantConstrictors.com
Deviant Constrictors picturetrail

ABCC Aug 20, 2010 05:57 AM

Wow, lots of great info guys! Thanks!

Adam

KevMadden Aug 20, 2010 09:27 PM

than in almost all reptile books. I want to say thanks to y'all for sharing the info concerning your sucess and failures.

One thing I'm not doing again is dropping temps like I did this past year....tragic results for me.

Any way thanks again for sharing.

Take care,

Kevin

ABCC Aug 19, 2010 05:21 PM

The Golden Girl looks good even at this stage! I really think that she may be my favorite Bcc.

Adam

kitchi Aug 19, 2010 08:06 PM

Adam, she actually looks way better today than that picture. Its a really bad picture as there is very little light getting into her 6 X 3 Vision. Next month, you will be producing a little Golden Girl or two yourself. I can feel it.

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